learn • change • teach: creative ideas

This Is My Wealth: How I StumbledUpon My Big Idea

Cover via Amazon

According as each has been educated, so he repents of or glories in his actions – SPINOZA, Ethics, 1677

The inspiration to write this book came to me in the night of 10th February 2010, a day I will never forget. Prior to that however, I was an ambitious employee of an architectural firm in Camden, London. But due to the financial crisis that crippled the economies of the globe in 2008, I along with several others was made redundant in July of that year. I was back at looking at the world and life through uncertain eyes. I was also an undergraduate studying for a BSc in Project Management for Construction at a top London university and this new situation posed a difficult problem.

I’d like to believe that the economic crisis was the sole reason for my redundancy but on a deeper level, I felt that I still had much to learn within myself, within life and within the workplace; I had failed woefully in the subtle areas of tact and diplomacy. To add insult to injury, my health had been taking a turn for the worse as I was born with a medical condition called Sickle Cell Anaemia and was due to undergo surgery that same month. This caused severe problems with my studies as my medical condition, coupled with the financial difficulties hindered me from meeting coursework deadlines. By January 2009, I had officially interrupted my academic studies. Suddenly, everything that made sense in my world seemed to have come to an abrupt halt and I felt devastated. The only things I had going in my favour were my son and my personal self-development of the last 4 years and holding on to them was the only thing I found I could do.

I repeatedly asked myself and sincerely wished to know why I was chosen for redundancy. Was it my work? It can’t be! I was good at that. Was it my health issues? No, they couldn’t possibly be so prejudiced. It must have been my character I thought to myself. As mentioned earlier, I felt I needed some improving to do in this area. So, continuing with my personal improvement of self and character seemed all the more appealing to me and I was very grateful for the mentor that I had managed to secure at the architectural firm. He taught me a host of new ideas and ways of being. Probably the most important of all was the habit of reading. He provided me with some great books like Coleman Barks’ The Essential Rumi, which was very inspirational indeed. He also pointed me in the direction of some other wonderful books to buy. Reading these books allowed me to feed my mind with so much wisdom and valuable information that would be of good use to me in time. I am truly grateful for his help which lasts till this day. I continued to read more books on life in general, business, and politics such as Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine. I found the information available in these books to be staggering and mind blowing. They gave me understanding on matters previously unknown and prompted a huge change in my fearful and unrewarding thought patterns around life and business.

Around this time also, I bought a host of inspirational, self-help books such as Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich and Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist,and was greatly motivated. I also started looking at get-rich-quick schemes on the internet as most people in my situation probably did. I reasoned that since I was now at home on a full-time basis, I could possibly earn some income that way. I decided to buy a few of such schemes that promised millions in return for a small investment of about £30-£50 for a set of CDs and DVDs. After purchasing a few of these, I soon began to realise that they all possessed a rather similar theme with a slight variation depending on the products they offered.

They all claimed to teach you ‘how to’ sell your own products on-line and that by working only a few hours a day you could make a killing. They even claimed to be able to help you devise your own product for sale or you could simply sell their ready-made ones. I realised that they were effectively promising to teach you solid marketing techniques that they had learnt at some point in their lives. I continually pondered these schemes until one quiet night whilst studying one of such systems on DVD, I had an epiphany. This sudden realisation of truth was so amazing; I noticed that some people had paid as much as £5,000 to attend seminars on these ‘How-To-Techniques’ and then it dawned on me that these people including me – although on a much smaller financial scale – were essentially paying to learn core marketing and salesmanship techniques and were being actively encouraged to find other people that we could teach. Those people would in turn pay us for that service.

So the system I noticed was such: when you learn an idea, you are essentially ‘buying’ into that idea and when you teach an idea, you are ‘selling’ it to someone else. This was profound simplicity to me as I realised that there were never any millions to be made from selling their ready-made ‘how-to’ products. The marketing lessons themselves were the real money making products and customers would essentially learn to teach others the secrets of these ideas by paying for that service. Life is a wonderful tale of profound simplicity!

I also became aware that many people who buy into such schemes are completely unaware of this fact – as I was – and are totally dependent on the ready-made products being offered by the network-marketing companies. Far from surprise was the fact that this offer was only available upon completion of the entire marketing course. Sadly, people who buy into such schemes sooner or later begin to realise that they will not be making the millions being proposed to them after all. They also had the tendency to believe that the problem lies with the system and that they have somehow been scammed. Surprisingly, the problem does not lay with the system; the system works. It lays in the product and the method that people are using. It lays in their belief that there is only one product to sell and only one method to sell it.

It doesn’t ever occur to them that there are many other products that the same system would work similarly well for. I realised that the only way people would ever create any significant amount of income was by learning and mastering the ideas on the marketing programs and making it their own by adapting it to a product that resonates with their lives and their personality. In other words, they would have to sell the same marketing techniques that they had bought into and the system would work well, provided that they were able to identify a product that suited their own lifestyle and personal ambitions. I realised that it was a game of learning, changing and teaching; a game of buying, re-packaging and selling ideas. It was as simple as that and this realisation reminded me of a time when a wise man once told me that the greatest truths in life are usually the simplest.

Armed with such incredible insight, I truly felt empowered for the first time in my life and could not keep this feeling to myself. I decided that I too would learn to teach others just as my mentor, the many books, and the get-rich-quick schemes had done for me. I thought to myself, ‘this is my wealth’, for it seemed that all my life experiences, ups-and-downs and studies up until this point had finally found cohesion and meaning. Rather than going down the get-rich-quick route, I decided to use my life-long love of research and writing to patiently develop this basic idea. I have done so in order to help others understand the simple yet profound concepts I have managed to discover during my own life-long journey of change.

It is even more astonishing to see that what started as a means to advise people on money-making measures has over the course of time and planning – using the same principles described in this book – surpassed that materialistic objective to become something truly inspirational. If used correctly, it can be applied to several other aspects in life that are much more fulfilling and rewarding than the glistening worldly allures that money offers. Thank you for giving this idea a chance by reading this piece and I trust that it will help you to learn, change and teach others your own great idea.

It’s always good to read another persons experience of trials and tribulations as well as change for the better through the lessons learn’t via these stages. It is also very inspiring when you relate to a story that provides some details of your thoughts and experiences that we sometimes feel we go through in a solitude state. Like you I have been on a constant search for answers to better myself and I still am. Books like the Alchemist and Think and Grow rich are books that have been introduced to me by my mother from an earlier age and its only through my ups and downs that in reflection I had and still have found benefits that have aided and continued to aid my life. I am very motivated by your search into the get rich schemes as the value of realising that true worth stems from not what someone gives you to sell but what you do with that knowledge given and how you adapt it to better move you forward in your proposed area of business. The problem is we do look more to the outcome of material first and foremost forgeting that the true value comes from the power of the mustard seed that has been planted and nurtured with care and faith before the harvest can be reaped. This is a very inspirational read and I yet again look forward to the next one. Thanks again.

No Thank you Myke for this. I am glad that you pointed out how the get-rich-schemes did help me to realise my own worth. I can say that they truly did get me rich in the end lol, rich with new ideas and possibilities. It’s amazing … thanks.

People love systems and formulas. They appeal to the mind and we’ve all been taught that it is good to be the smartest in the class. The thing with “get – rich schemes” is that because people are focusing on the thing and the selling system (physical thing and mind aspect) they lose sight of the the soft skills that are equally necessary for the success of any project – the heart and spirit. The creators of these ‘schemes’ usually have these 2 other aspects involved because whatever it is is usually their ‘baby’ so there is an inherent emotional connection and because they have tuned in to their purpose they have connected to the divine matrix to support their idea. Unfortunately these are difficult things to teach and pass on to others.
The attraction to these schemes in the first place often stems from fear and loss and so the spirit is one of desperation – not life supporting ideas and vibrations!

All manifestations of life must be supported by spirit, emotion, mind, and physicality in other words – divine purpose, heart, system, and product All these aspects must be fully developed in order to bring something into being.From reading your story I believe you are on your right path! You certainly have the heart and spirit in place, and seem to be working diligently on developing your system and product. The trick of course with this line of work is that there is never an end product as human consciousness is always developing and evolving. And furthermore you are absolutely right that ‘your’ unique thing must grow out of your life experiences. I congratulate you on your inspiration and all your business and personal development to date! An authentic spiritual warrior on a hero’s journey!

Thank you Andrea. You’re absolutely correct in that the mental and physical parts of anything we do are just 2 of 4 manifestations of that thing. The other 2 parts (emotional and spiritual) are just as important and should all be independently and simultaneously called upon to be utilised in all we aim to manifest in our lives. It’s like the four seasons; they all work in-sync and follow the natural order of things for the one purpose of creating life and sustaining us. Similarly, we should try to emulate nature in our dealings and flow with our natural order by consulting/committing our mind, body, heart and soul in the things we decide to create and manifest in our world.

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